The air raid on the Salala border post in Mohmand Agency had killed over two dozen Pakistani soldiers and plunged the fragile Pakistan-US counter-terrorism alliance into a deep crisis.

Appearing at a joint news conference with his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that his country respects Islamabad’s decision to reconfigure ties with the US.

He made these remarks amidst speculation that Ankara was pushing Islamabad to lift the six-month-old blockade of supplies for US-led foreign forces in Afghanistan at the earliest. Turkey is part of the US-led international coalition fighting the decade-old Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

“As a member of Nato, Turkey believes that such issues should be resolved through mutual dialogue,” Erdogan said in response to a question about the lingering deadlock between Pakistan and the US.

In his remarks, Prime Minister Gilani said that the Salala incident had prompted the shutdown of the Nato supply routes and eviction of US troops from Shamsi Airbase. He added the final decision on Nato routes would be in line with new foreign policy guidelines approved by parliament last month.

The Turkish leader was however sceptical about the Nato/Isaf plans to pull out their troops from Afghanistan by 2014 – the deadline set by US President Barack Obama.

“The drawdown plan might be delayed,” he said. “But I can only tell you my country’s perspective. We will pull out troops only after all other troops have been withdrawn from Afghanistan.”

On Afghanistan, Gilani reiterated that his country would support an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led reconciliation. “The world should understand Pakistan’s sacrifices,” he insisted.

Govt-opposition mediator

For a second day running, the Turkish prime minister addressed simmering tensions between the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party and the main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

If the parties in Pakistan demonstrate shoulder-to-shoulder politics, Pakistan will be able to take its deserving place in the world, Erdogan said.

Reminiscing about the ‘solidarity and cooperation’ which the government and the opposition had when he last visited Pakistan four years back, Erdogan said he wished to see the same cooperation back at home. “I never enjoyed such cooperation in Turkey.”

“If I say this ceiling is white, our opposition would say it is black. But the opposition should always be constructive to serve the common benefits of the people,” he said.

Asked whether he was willing to play the role of a mediator between Pakistan’s government and opposition, Erdogan said he believed that the government and opposition need to stand united to serve the country.

Pak-Turkey ink accords to boost ties

Pakistan and Turkey also signed nine agreements to promote cooperation in different fields, including trade, investment, energy and communications.

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Reader Comments (24)

“If the government and the opposition keep fighting among themselves, the people will suffer profoundly,” he said. “We should put the people first. The state is secondary. The purpose of the state is to serve the people, and not anything else.”*

If only this sort of sentiment was portrayed by politicians throughout the world!

Doesn’t sound like he is backing anything but Pakistan’s right to make its own decision regarding supply routes. I don’t read anything that has the Turkish premier backing that an apology be made to Pakistan. Your headline is misleading.

Pakistan-China-Turkey
Its kind spiritual bond with these two countries, i dont know but there is love for them among Pakistani masses. We consider them more friendly and closer to us than the Arab countries.

In his book “The Next 100 Years”, author George Friedman of Stratfor argues that Turkey is a rising power both economically and it’s going to emerge as the main challenger to the United States by the middle of this century.

In his book “The Next 100 Years”, author George Friedman of Stratfor argues that Turkey is a rising power both economically and politically and it’s going to emerge as the main challenger to the United States by the middle of this century.

I agree with the above comment that the key to his statement is people “We should put the people first. The state is secondary. The purpose of the state is to serve the people, and not anything else.”
In Pakistan the institutions are the first and people that last. We have been exploiting people with slogans like strong center, strong state, strong federation, strong army, strong judiciary, strong defense, but the people always come last. No wonder Turkey is the new force in the region and we are constantly sliding down the hill.

So don’t open the NATO supply routes. Also, don’t ask for aid. Don’t ask for loans. Don’t ask for trade concessions from Europe and America for your textile industry. Then see where your economy is and get back. Also don’t cook up hairy-fairy numbers like Pakistan “lost” $60 billion in the War on Terror. Pakistan made over $20 million and if the economy was afloat during the Mush era, it was due to this aid.

So sad that events of the past have made the govt and erstwhile friendly opposition at daggers point.This means in simple term that national interest is of no significance to both.
While we must thank Turkish PM for his desire to defuse the tension between the feuding parties we must also tell our honourable guest that the fight is over share of booty and has nothing to do with service to people or country.
Regarding opening of supply route,unfortunately it has been allowed to become a an EGOIST
matter.Things are heading to an ugly direction brunt of which will be felt by Pakistan for years,sad.

Bring our troops back, find our own oil, look for work for our families and tell THEM to get on their camels and sort themselves out. (After all their ancestors have been doing just that for the last 6,000 years).

Here’s a more interesting tidbit than this one. Ha’aretz is reporting that Turkey is indicting the terrorists responsible for the Mavi Marvara massacre. Well, not the leaders of the terrorists, of course, just the mercenaries who pulled the triggers not the ones who masterminded and ordered the massacre and the act of piracy.

@Pragmatist: LOL! As if you were giving them money for that. You Amerikans must be the only ones who don’t realize that your country openly bribes all these other countries, put their puppet governments in their pockets and then have free reign to kill innocent civilians, steal natural resources, create chaos and terrorize everyone.